jilimacao 123 wisan224/iStock via Getty Images Myers Industries’ ( NYSE: MYE ) businesses revolve around material handling products and distribution of auto aftermarket tools and equipment. Myers is a collection of various rather independent subsidiaries and the company pursues an active acquisition strategy to Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MYE either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter can be criticized on many levels. The president lied repeatedly to the American people, saying he would never even consider such an action. And he demonstrated that same streak of stubbornness and selfishness that led him to ignore his obvious decline and declare – disastrously for the Democrats – that he would seek a second term. But those mistakes will be debated by historians. The practical and immediate result of Biden’s decision will be to undermine the forces, from both parties, who are now arming to oppose Donald Trump’s coming war against the nation’s system of law and justice. “Mr. Biden’s pardon,” writes Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent of The New York Times, “will make it harder for Democrats to defend the integrity of the Justice Department and stand against Mr. Trump’s unapologetic plans to use it for political purposes even as he seeks to install Kash Patel, an adviser who has vowed to ‘come after’ the president-elect’s enemies, as the next director of the FBI.” The president’s decision, editorialized the Washington Post, “maligned the Justice Department and invited Mr. Trump to draw equivalence between the Hunter Biden pardon and any future moves Mr. Trump might take against the impartial administration of justice.” Discount the Republicans, who are soaked in hypocrisy on this subject. There is real anguish among Biden’s fellow Democrats, such as Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, who headed the party’s Senate campaign effort. “A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment,” Peters said in a statement. “This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.” Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland added on CNN: “A pardon at this point will be used against, I think, Democrats who were pushing to defend the Department of Justice against politicizing it, which is certainly what President Trump plans to do.” As Baker noted, one of Trump’s major efforts to bend justice is nominating Patel, a flag-waving, sword-brandishing warrior in his MAGA army, as the next FBI director. Patel has vowed to employ government power to punish Trump’s political enemies and wrote in his recent book: The FBI has “become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken.” He’s also aiming at journalists who dare to oppose Trump, telling Steve Bannon’s radio show, “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out.” Tradition dictates that a president gets to pick his own advisers. But tradition, at least in the half-century since Watergate, also mandates that the Justice Department and the FBI are different from other federal agencies and have a second set of loyalties – not just to the president, but to the rule of law and a fair judicial system. That’s precisely why lawmakers from both parties were so appalled at Trump’s first choice for Attorney General – the ethically indigent Matt Gaetz – that he was forced to withdraw within a week. If anything, the Patel nomination is even more indefensible, according to Republicans who served with him during Trump One. When Patel’s name was raised as a possible deputy director of the FBI, Attorney General Bill Barr recalls telling then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows it would only happen “over my dead body.” In his memoir, Barr wrote that Patel “had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency. The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality.” Trump also floated Patel’s name as a possible deputy director of the CIA, but as Axios reported, spy chief Gina Haspel “said she wouldn’t stand for it, and that she would resign before allowing Patel to assume a position as her deputy.” “No part of the FBI’s mission is safe with Kash Patel in any position of leadership in the FBI,” Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the bureau during Trump’s first term, told CNN. “If you enter into that position with nothing more than a desire to disrupt and destroy the organization, there is a lot of damage someone like Kash Patel could do.” Senators who believe in a system of laws and their impartial and independent enforcement have already defied Trump once by blocking Gaetz. Defeating Patel is just as vital. But Biden’s decision to pardon his son has made their task much more difficult. Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.Lethbridge police investigating second sudden death in three days

From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turnPeper column: Enjoy the journey to nothingness

Doctored images have been around for decades. The term "Photoshopped" is part of everyday language. But in recent years, it has seemingly been replaced by a new word: deepfake. It's almost everywhere online, but you likely won't find it in your dictionary at home. What exactly is a deepfake, and how does the technology work? RELATED STORY | Scripps News Reports: Sex, Lies, and Deepfakes A deepfake is an image or video that has been generated by artificial intelligence to look real. Most deepfakes use a type of AI called a "diffusion model." In a nutshell, a diffusion model creates content by stripping away noise. "With diffusion models, they found a very clever way of taking an image and then constructing that procedure to go from here to there," said Lucas Hansen said. He and Siddharth Hiregowdara are cofounders of CivAI, a nonprofit educating the public on the potential — and dangers — of AI. How diffusion models work It can get complicated, so imagine the AI – or diffusion model – as a detective trying to catch a suspect. Like a detective, it relies on its experience and training. It recalls a previous case -– a sneaky cat on the run. Every day it added more and more disguises. On Monday, no disguise. Tuesday, it put on a little wig. Wednesday, it added some jewelry. By Sunday, it's unrecognizable and wearing a cheeseburger mask. The detective learned these changes can tell you what it wore and on what day. AI diffusion models do something similar with noise, learning what something looks like at each step. "The job of the diffusion model is to remove noise," Hiregowdara said. "You would give the model this picture, and then it will give you a slightly de-noised version of this picture." RELATED STORY | Scripps News got deepfaked to see how AI could impact elections When it's time to solve the case and generate a suspect, we give it a clue: the prompts we give when we create an AI-generated image. "We have been given the hint that this is supposed to look like a cat. So what catlike things can we see in here? Okay, we see this curve, maybe that's an ear," Hiregowdara said. The "detective" works backward, recalling its training. It sees a noisy image. Thanks to the clue, it is looking for a suspect — a cat. It subtracts disguises (noise) until it finds the new suspect. Case closed. Now imagine the "detective" living and solving crimes for years and years. It learns and studies everything — landscapes, objects, animals, people, anything at all. So when it needs to generate a suspect or an image, it remembers its training and creates an image. Deepfakes and faceswaps Many deepfake images and videos employ some type of face swapping technology. You've probably experienced this kind of technology already — faceswapping filters like on Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok use technology similar to diffusion models, recognizing faces and replacing things in real time. "It will find the face in the image and then cut that out kind of, then take the face and convert it to its internal representation," Hansen said. The results are refined then repeated frame by frame. The future and becoming our own detectives As deepfakes become more and more realistic and tougher to detect, understanding how the technology works at a basic level can help us prepare for any dangers or misuse. Deepfakes have already been used to spread election disinformation, create fake explicit images of a teenager, even frame a principal with AI-created racist audio. "All the netizens on social media also have a role to play," Siwei Lyu said. Lyu is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the director of the Media Forensics Lab. His team has created a tool to help spot deepfakes called "DeepFake-o-meter." "We do not know how to handle, how to deal, with these kinds of problems. It's very new. And also requires technical knowledge to understand some of the subtleties there," Lyu said. "The media, the government, can play a very active role to improve user awareness and education. Especially for vulnerable groups like seniors, the kids, who will start to understand the social media world and start to become exposed to AI technologies. They can easily fall for AI magic or start using AI without knowing the limits." RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone Both Lyu and CivAI believe in exposure and education to help combat any potential misuse of deepfake technology. "Our overall goal is that we think AI is going t impact pretty much everyone in a lot of different ways," Hansen said. "And we think that everyone should be aware of the ways that it's going to change them because it's going to impact everyone." "More than just general education — just knowing the facts and having heard what's going to happen," he added. "We want to give people a really intuitive experience of what's going on." Hansen goes on to explain CivAI's role in educating the public. "We try and make all of our demonstrations personalized as much as possible. What we're working on is making it so people can see it themselves. So they know it's real, and they feel that it's real," Hansen said. "And they can have a deep gut level feel for tthe impact that it's going to have." "A big part of the solution is essentially just going to be education and sort of cultural changes," he added. "A lot of this synthetic content is sort of like a new virus that is attacking society right now, and people need to become immune to it in some ways. They need to be more suspicious about what's real and what's not, and I think that will help a lot as well."

Here's what Apple's 2025 might look likeMartinez had gone eight matches since last finding the back of the net against Venezia on November 3 but after Alessandro Bastoni opened the scoring in the 54th minute, the Argentina international struck in Sardinia. The Inter captain took his tally against Cagliari to 10 goals in as many games after 71 minutes before Hakan Calhanoglu capped an excellent night for the visitors from the penalty spot a few moments later. This moment >>> #ForzaInter #CagliariInter pic.twitter.com/aZwbAZvRVI — Inter ⭐⭐ (@Inter_en) December 28, 2024 Inter’s fifth-successive league victory led to them temporarily leapfrogging Atalanta, who reclaimed top spot but saw their lead cut to a single point following a 1-1 draw at Lazio. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side were grateful for a point in the end after falling behind to Fisayo Dele-Bashiru’s first-half strike, only drawing level with two minutes remaining thanks to Marco Brescianini. Lautaro Valenti’s last-gasp strike condemned rock-bottom Monza to a 10th defeat in 18 matches as Parma edged a 2-1 victory, while Genoa defeated Empoli by the same scoreline.

Champai Soren is a name synonymous with the foundation of the state of Jharkhand. The veteran tribal politician is contesting for a seat in the state’s Saraikela district. This region has had one constant representative in the state assembly since the year 2005–Champai Soren. He has won the seat six times as an MLA, twice in the erstwhile southern area of Bihar–now the state of Jharkhand, and four times in the current state. Champai Soren: Defending champion of Saraikela This constituency has come at the forefront of the Jharkhand elections , with Soren battling it against his former party–the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha . "Every day several vehicles come to the village asking for Champai Soren's house. After Champai Da became CM, people have taken a special interest in our village," Laxman Soren, a 32-year- old farmer, told ET in Jilinggora, the native village of Champai Soren. Marketing Performance Marketing for eCommerce Brands By - Zafer Mukeri, Founder- Inara Marketers View Program Marketing Modern Marketing Masterclass by Seth Godin By - Seth Godin, Former dot com Business Executive and Best Selling Author View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Basics of Generative AI: Unveiling Tomorrow's Innovations By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By - Study At Home, Quality Education Anytime, Anywhere View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Office Productivity Microsoft Word Mastery: From Beginner to Expert By - CA Raj K Agrawal, Chartered Accountant View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI for Everyone: Understanding and Applying the Basics on Artificial Intelligence By - Ritesh Vajariya, Generative AI Expert View Program Marketing Future of Marketing & Branding Masterclass By - Dr. David Aaker, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Author | Speaker | Thought Leader | Branding Consultant View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Strategy Succession Planning Masterclass By - Nigel Penny, Global Strategy Advisor: NSP Strategy Facilitation Ltd. View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Mastering C++ Fundamentals with Generative AI: A Hands-On By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Crypto & NFT Mastery: From Basics to Advanced By - CA Raj K Agrawal, Chartered Accountant View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Tally Prime & GST Accounting: Complete Guide By - CA Raj K Agrawal, Chartered Accountant View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By - Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Author at Neil Patel Digital Digital Marketing Guru View Program Web Development Master RESTful APIs with Python and Django REST Framework: Web API Development By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development C++ Fundamentals for Absolute Beginners By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program While Soren is the BJP candidate this time, JMM is being represented in the constituency by Ganesh Mahli. With results to be announced today, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is eyeing Champai Soren as a key player to end its losing streak in the Kolhan region . The Saffron party had failed to win a single seat in the region during the 2019 assembly elections, and is banking on Soren’s influence to turn the tide in its favor. For many voters in Kolhan, particularly tribal communities, Soren’s legacy is deeply intertwined with his work and leadership. "Champai Soren and JMM were weaved together. This is the first time we will have to choose between either JMM or Champai Soren," said Dilip Soren, a villager from the region. The shift in allegiances is significant, as Soren’s son, Babulal Soren , who is contesting from Ghatshila on a BJP ticket explained. “Not only Saraikela but the people of Kolhan are not going to let the Tiger down," said Babulal Soren. Champai Soren, a prominent tribal leader , has held sway over Kolhan for decades. His influence is especially strong in constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes, where tribal and other backward class voters play a decisive role. Soren’s political journey has seen his steadfast dedication to the region's development during his long-standing association with the JMM, a party he was a part of until his departure earlier this year. In August, after resigning from the JMM, Soren considered launching a new political party. However, on August 30, he had joined forces with the BJP, securing a position within the state’s political framework. Soren’s political career has been long and storied. The 67-year-old tribal leader has earned the title of ‘Jharkhand’s Tiger’ due to his role in the state’s long struggle for a separate identity in the 1990s, which culminated in the formation of Jharkhand in 2000. From ‘undivided’ Bihar to Jharkhand Soren’s entry into politics began in 1991 when he was elected as an Independent MLA from the Saraikela constituency in undivided Bihar. Four years later, he joined the JMM, where he defeated the BJP’s Panchu Tudu. However, his journey was not without setbacks. He lost the 2000 elections from Saraikela to BJP’s Anant Ram Tudu but regained his seat in 2005 after a narrow victory margin of just 880 votes. Soren went on to win the seat again in 2009, 2014, and 2019, solidifying his political presence. In 2019, when his son Hemant Soren formed the state’s government for the second time, Champai Soren was appointed as the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and Transport. However, tensions within the JMM began to mount, and Soren expressed feelings of "bitter humiliation" as chief minister. He claimed that the abrupt cancellation of government programs without consultation left him with little choice but to explore new political avenues. His subsequent resignation as chief minister earlier this year paved the way for Hemant Soren to reclaim the position for a third term. Despite this political shift, Champai Soren’s status as a key tribal leader remains undeniable. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )Unions attack 2.8% Government pay rise proposal for NHS workers and teachers

Christian Cueva celebrated his birthday on November 23 in a special way, accompanied by his partner, the singer Pamela Franco. During one of the cumbiambera presentations, the soccer player took the opportunity to start his celebration, in an event full of music and romance. Those attending Pamela’s concert could see how the footballer enjoyed his beloved’s songs, showing his support. Pamela Franco surprises Christian Cueva with a romantic message The most emotional moment of the night came when Pamela, while performing her popular song ‘Simply Friends’, looked at Christian Cueva and, before continuing with the next verse, surprised the audience with a sincere “I love you, my love. So affectionate he”. This gesture, full of complicity, was quickly captured by attendees and went viral on social networks. Furthermore, a song that marked the night was ‘El cervecero’, a song that Pamela Franco and Christian Cueva recently recorded together. Despite a legal conflict related to the copyright of the song, both managed to reach an agreement with the composer to continue performing it in their presentations, which allowed them to share this song at their special celebration. Christian Cueva and Pamela Franco got permission to sing ‘El Cervecero’ After weeks of uncertainty, Pamela Franco and Christian Cueva managed to obtain authorization to sing ‘El cervecero’. The agreement was made official through a document signed by the author, José María Yzazaga. The text, spread on the platform Instarándula states: “I, José María Yzazaga Quispe (...) in full use of my mental faculties, authorize Pamela Cristle Franco Viera (...) to perform it in shows and musical productions that I see fit, as well as in audio and video, a song of my authorship whose title is ‘Cervecero’ (...)”. With this permission, Cave and Franco They will be able to include the song in live performances and other musical projects, thus consolidating their success. However, it has not been confirmed whether the composer’s initial demand, who had requested compensation of 200,000 soles due to previous use of the theme. Join our entertainment channelMaharashtra Election Results 2024: PM Modi’s 'Janata Raja' Avatar Surfaces On Social Media After BJP Sweeps State PollsBiden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges

Doctored images have been around for decades. The term "Photoshopped" is part of everyday language. But in recent years, it has seemingly been replaced by a new word: deepfake. It's almost everywhere online, but you likely won't find it in your dictionary at home. What exactly is a deepfake, and how does the technology work? RELATED STORY | Scripps News Reports: Sex, Lies, and Deepfakes A deepfake is an image or video that has been generated by artificial intelligence to look real. Most deepfakes use a type of AI called a "diffusion model." In a nutshell, a diffusion model creates content by stripping away noise. "With diffusion models, they found a very clever way of taking an image and then constructing that procedure to go from here to there," said Lucas Hansen said. He and Siddharth Hiregowdara are cofounders of CivAI, a nonprofit educating the public on the potential — and dangers — of AI. How diffusion models work It can get complicated, so imagine the AI – or diffusion model – as a detective trying to catch a suspect. Like a detective, it relies on its experience and training. It recalls a previous case -– a sneaky cat on the run. Every day it added more and more disguises. On Monday, no disguise. Tuesday, it put on a little wig. Wednesday, it added some jewelry. By Sunday, it's unrecognizable and wearing a cheeseburger mask. The detective learned these changes can tell you what it wore and on what day. AI diffusion models do something similar with noise, learning what something looks like at each step. "The job of the diffusion model is to remove noise," Hiregowdara said. "You would give the model this picture, and then it will give you a slightly de-noised version of this picture." RELATED STORY | Scripps News got deepfaked to see how AI could impact elections When it's time to solve the case and generate a suspect, we give it a clue: the prompts we give when we create an AI-generated image. "We have been given the hint that this is supposed to look like a cat. So what catlike things can we see in here? Okay, we see this curve, maybe that's an ear," Hiregowdara said. The "detective" works backward, recalling its training. It sees a noisy image. Thanks to the clue, it is looking for a suspect — a cat. It subtracts disguises (noise) until it finds the new suspect. Case closed. Now imagine the "detective" living and solving crimes for years and years. It learns and studies everything — landscapes, objects, animals, people, anything at all. So when it needs to generate a suspect or an image, it remembers its training and creates an image. Deepfakes and faceswaps Many deepfake images and videos employ some type of face swapping technology. You've probably experienced this kind of technology already — faceswapping filters like on Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok use technology similar to diffusion models, recognizing faces and replacing things in real time. "It will find the face in the image and then cut that out kind of, then take the face and convert it to its internal representation," Hansen said. The results are refined then repeated frame by frame. The future and becoming our own detectives As deepfakes become more and more realistic and tougher to detect, understanding how the technology works at a basic level can help us prepare for any dangers or misuse. Deepfakes have already been used to spread election disinformation, create fake explicit images of a teenager, even frame a principal with AI-created racist audio. "All the netizens on social media also have a role to play," Siwei Lyu said. Lyu is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the director of the Media Forensics Lab. His team has created a tool to help spot deepfakes called "DeepFake-o-meter." "We do not know how to handle, how to deal, with these kinds of problems. It's very new. And also requires technical knowledge to understand some of the subtleties there," Lyu said. "The media, the government, can play a very active role to improve user awareness and education. Especially for vulnerable groups like seniors, the kids, who will start to understand the social media world and start to become exposed to AI technologies. They can easily fall for AI magic or start using AI without knowing the limits." RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone Both Lyu and CivAI believe in exposure and education to help combat any potential misuse of deepfake technology. "Our overall goal is that we think AI is going t impact pretty much everyone in a lot of different ways," Hansen said. "And we think that everyone should be aware of the ways that it's going to change them because it's going to impact everyone." "More than just general education — just knowing the facts and having heard what's going to happen," he added. "We want to give people a really intuitive experience of what's going on." Hansen goes on to explain CivAI's role in educating the public. "We try and make all of our demonstrations personalized as much as possible. What we're working on is making it so people can see it themselves. So they know it's real, and they feel that it's real," Hansen said. "And they can have a deep gut level feel for tthe impact that it's going to have." "A big part of the solution is essentially just going to be education and sort of cultural changes," he added. "A lot of this synthetic content is sort of like a new virus that is attacking society right now, and people need to become immune to it in some ways. They need to be more suspicious about what's real and what's not, and I think that will help a lot as well."

None

For Kevin Robinson, his high school’s academic offerings were less important than its social opportunities. “My freshman year, I think my favorite class was ‘Hallway 101,’” Robinson said. That experience during his time at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, however, shaped his current mission to create an outlet for young people to discover their own talents and gifts. Robinson is the co-founder of 30,000 Feet , an organization that aims to empower “African American students in Saint Paul through culture, art, technology, and social justice.” The group works with youth throughout St. Paul from its offices near Johnson High School. Through a variety of programs, students work on tech skills like coding, art projects and academic excellence. Robinson’s organization, which recently purchased a new building near Johnson High, has helped raise the GPAs and — more importantly — the outlook of young BIPOC people searching for purpose. “[30,000 Feet] really means when you’re on an airplane at 30,000 feet, you’re cruising out,” Robinson said. “It means everything is fine. You’re safe to walk around, so we think there are similarities to the community. We are here to serve the community, build community, but also hopefully become a small piece of young people being successful and they can feel like when they’re done with our program they’re better and they’re good to go and they have the resources to be successful in life.” Robinson is among a multitude of playmakers on the east side of St. Paul who’ve devoted their time and resources to uplifting young minds. But he has not done it alone. The organization is the brainchild of both him and co-founder Vanessa Young. And a fleet of impactful minds have joined them on their venture. Quashingm Smith-Pugh, a former star basketball player at Johnson, is the organization’s community outreach coordinator. He said the staffers not only act as mentors to the students who come to them — largely by choice — but also as educators who offer their own experiences as guidance. “One day I had an opportunity to leave out the back door to basketball practice with the rest of my friends,” he said. “They decided to leave and I decided to stay. Something that small was a life-changing experience for me because — and I share this story with all of my students — all of those guys that walked out the back door that day ended up in the federal penitentiary. The choices that we make early on in life do affect the things that happen in our future.” I think Robinson’s work is both impactful and urgent because the Twin Cities has a problem. I think it’s hypocritical to implore our youth to seek outlets but then to close the doors to the venues and resources once available for them to expend their energy. The local malls are full of restrictions for youths who want to do what I did as a kid and just chill — I’m an ’80s and ’90s baby — with their friends. Movie theaters have security guards now. The roller rinks are closed. The public spaces for young people are largely gone. I can’t imagine how different my childhood might have been if my mom wouldn’t have had the option to drop me and my brothers off at the arcade in Northridge Mall in Milwaukee. Well, you can’t do that anymore either because that mall no longer exists. But I thrived in part because I had places to go and I never felt as if I had an abundance of bottled-up energy, especially during long winter breaks. That’s not the reality for youth in the Twin Cities, though. And while Robinson started his organization to offer educational endeavors for youth in St. Paul, he also just wanted the kids to have some place to go. It’s that aspect of 30,000 Feet that’s arguably had the most significant impact, he said. “I think if we give them something to do then I think by the time they get home, they have to go and get ready for school tomorrow, so it kind of limits their idle time,” Robinson said. “A lot of data says from that 3-7 p.m., a lot of young people get in trouble, so we want to make sure they have something positive to do. They get to build community with each other. The kids in our program, we’ve seen them building relationships.” Just before Christmas, 30,000 Feet organized an event for the young people in its programs and their families in St. Paul. There was a video-game room that featured “NBA 2K” and “Madden ‘25.” There was also a NASCAR simulator, which allowed participants to experience the rush of driving a race car. There were also gifts, food and art projects, too. “They were just enjoying building gingerbread houses and things like that,” Smith-Pugh said. “We had a live mural, and kids would just come up there and paint on the mural. They enjoyed that. The movie and popcorn, for me, I got joy out of that myself. People were coming together and just having a good time.” And, above all, there was a sense of family, which Robinson hopes to create as his organization continues to leave its mark on St. Paul. “I think my ultimate goal is to see young people be able to see their full potential,” Robinson said. “And I want them to get a fair shake. I think that’s my thing. That’s a goal of mine.”

Patrick Mahomes will probably find a new way to celebrate a big play moving forward. The Kansas City Chiefs ' star quarterback was fined over $14,000 by the NFL for what was deemed a "violent gesture" during Kansas City's Week 11 loss to the Buffalo Bills . Here's a look at the gesture that led to Mahomes being fined. The NFL fined #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes $14,069 for unsportsmanlike conduct (violent gesture) as he celebrated a touchdown pass last week in Buffalo ... pic.twitter.com/dXgnmYJSYp This is just the second time that Mahomes has been fined. His first fine occurred last December when he was docked $50,000 for "verbally abusing" officials doing a game that also took place during a loss to the Bills. Mahomes wasn't the only player who was fined this weekend due to a celebration that the NFL did not appreciate. Lions wideout Jameson Williams was docked nearly $20,000 for his celebration that paid homage to former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch's celebration at the end of his legendary touchdown run in the 2010 playoffs.

People are just realising energy firms are giving out FREE winter gadgets to keep warm without putting the heating on

Will Travis Kelce propose to Taylor Swift on her birthday? What we know about the celebration